ASSESSMENT OF KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE OF PHARMACISTS
Jayakrishnan S. S.* and Kiron S. S.
ABSTRACT
Hospital Pharmacy services are designed to meet the primary needs of all patients. Pharmacy services include dispensing of pharmaceuticals in accordance with country regulations, appropriate inventory maintenance functions, drug monitoring, patient drug assessment functions, appropriate record keeping, drug information, education services, and performance improvement functions. The objective of the study was to analyze the knowledge, attitude and practice of Pharmacists to do better pharmaceutical care. It’s an observational study with 1329 samples. A standard proforma containing the very basic information about the pharmacists was prepared where several questions regarding the knowledge, attitude and practice of the working pharmacists was given and they were asked to give the suitable answers and necessary remarks if any. There were a total of 37 questions in the KAP questionnaire. 7 questions was regarding the knowledge of the working pharmacists, 10 questions regarding the attitude of the pharmacists and finally 20 questions regarding the practice of the working pharmacists. In the study, majority of the pharmacists were female (63.2%) and majority belong to the age group ˃25-35 years (36.5%). Majority was Permanent staff (63.1). 71.6% had sufficient information about efficiency and effectiveness of medications. 73.2% had sufficient information about adverse effects of medications. 95.8% had sufficient information about dosage and administration of medications. 89.3% give advice and assistance on some common life style diseases like DM, HTN etc. Approximately 81.7% always allot enough time for giving advice to patients on medications. 80.5% maintain a well-documented service strategy. 88.6% give various levels of attention for elderly and regular patients. 95.4% are ready to work overtime in case of any urgency. The study concluded that the primary and secondary care hospitals need much more implementation of quality indicators to improve the pharmaceutical care. The knowledge of the pharmacists was also not up to the mark. So there must be continuous education programmes for all working pharmacists in the hospitals so as to improve the profession of pharmacy in the minds of the common people and other health care professionals.
Keywords: Health care system, Hospital Pharmacy, KAP Questionnaire, Patient education, Pharmacists, Rational Prescribing.
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